Inspection finds most children’s services in Shetland performing well

Most services for children and young people in Shetland are performing well, inspectors have concluded, but some important areas requiring improvement have also been identified.

It follows a joint inspection of services across Shetland by a team of inspectors from the Care Inspectorate, Education Scotland, Healthcare Improvement Scotland and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary for Scotland.

Inspectors looked at a wide range of services provided by the Shetland Community Planning Partnership between January and March 2015.

Across nine quality indicators, six were found to be ‘good’, two were rated ‘adequate’, and one, “assessing and responding to risks and needs” was rated ‘weak’.

In their report, inspectors noted: “The inspection team was confident that the lives of many children and young people growing up in Shetland were improving as a result of the services delivered to them by the Shetland Partnership.

“However, for more vulnerable children and young people, practice was too variable in the recognition, information sharing and early response to concerns about well-being.” 

Inspectors added: “Despite recent improvements in professional practice, we also had some concerns about the protection and wellbeing of a small, but significant number of at risk children and young people.

“Building on good leadership, positive attitudes and a commitment to ‘Getting it right for every child’, the Shetland partnership needed to further improve children’s services planning, as well as maintaining and improving the quality and impact of services for vulnerable children and young people.

“The challenge for the Shetland Partnership going forward will be to demonstrate more clearly trends that indicate closing outcome gaps, achieved through prevention and early intervention.” 

Karen Reid, Chief Executive of the Care Inspectorate said: “This inspection found that on the whole, young people in Shetland were well cared for, healthy, well-educated and participated actively in their communities through a range of leisure and cultural activities. 

“We found a clear commitment to implementing the national ‘Getting it right for every child’ approach, which was beginning to help staff work more effectively together to meet the needs of children and young people. 

“Leadership for services for children was good and steadily improving, despite the significant challenges of financial constraints, high public expectations and limited management capacity.  

“A real strength was how staff worked creatively and collaboratively to achieve positive outcomes for children and families living in very remote areas.

“However, partners need to ensure that weekly multi-agency child protection screening meetings are effective in agreeing and co-ordinating actions in response to children who may be at risk.

“An area for priority action is addressing the shortage of appropriate local placements for looked after children and young people, and prioritising the recruitment of foster carers, including fee paid carers, and the development of residential services to meet the range of needs. 

“Partners also need to establish more rigorous quality assurance processes and use self-evaluation and performance management data more effectively to decide on priorities and strengthen children’s services planning. 

“We will monitor the Partnership’s progress and report on progress made within 18 months.”

You can download the inspection report here: http://cinsp.in/1H9wJEQ